There was likely several topics long ago on roughly this sort of thing, but I've thought long over this subject a great deal.

Experimenting with different relationship ideas, attempting to replicate a sibling rivalry arrangement [only worked out for the desired result once, but not that well..][spoler]Specifically, I found the sibling relationship to be most difficult post Generations, because misbehaving in families was not allowed without some consequences. Whereas I look at ts2 and the Pleasant Twins, being able to constantly have Lilith [in my preference] lording it over Angela almost every single time I desire to is somewhat amusing in a way. I miss that sort of story scripting from ts2, it frustrates me that you don't get that in ts3. To have twins form such a deep rift between them is near impossible, at least for me, in ts3 and remains a great source of frustration.

I also find trying to plan for certain people a very frustrating process of hit and miss, like I want a sim to marry Cornelia Goth, its easier to finagle a male to a female relationship than other way around. [far easier and I've certainly done that once either way.]

[/spoiler]

I'm sure there are other challenges with sims 3 I've had, but what are some of the challenges you've grumbled at with ts3?

I'm a little disappointed that the relationships between two sims exactly match up on both sides. Like, you can't have unrequited love or someone who really admires someone else, but that person they admire thinks they are a pain. I remember the Sims 2 was able to make this sort of thing happen to an extent, but I've always wanted the Sims 3 to have an update where the relationships between two individuals could be different on either side.

As a story teller, the biggest challenge is to have my Sims stand still when there's a group of them. Or avoid that they stare blandly at a wall...

That must be because I've used mods right from the start, but I generally find the game hard to play. When I played with motives on (that hasn't happened in years!), I remember I had a hard time just keeping my Sim happy. Only one of them! Two was for me impossible to manage, let alone with kids. So that's why I began using mods. Otherwise the game was too frustrating for me and it quickly became a boring routine of sleep-eat-poop-shower-work.But you're right, relationships are disappointing because they are the only element that feels too easy. You only have to flirt a couple of times with a Sim to woohoo with him/her. Sims feel exactly the same way about each other. On the other hand, you lose your friends pretty quickly if you don't pay attention to them regularly and when you know how many careers require you to have a certain number of friends... that makes it pretty challenging.

ssAly88 wrote:I'm a little disappointed that the relationships between two sims exactly match up on both sides. Like, you can't have unrequited love or someone who really admires someone else, but that person they admire thinks they are a pain. I remember the Sims 2 was able to make this sort of thing happen to an extent, but I've always wanted the Sims 3 to have an update where the relationships between two individuals could be different on either side.

Ooo I never thought about this before! It'd be really interesting to have someone who was lovestruck with someone who didn't really care.

I hated that, the larger your save data got, the slower the game became. When I first start a new lot, it's totally fine, but the more the family grows and life goes on, the more unbearably slow the game gets for me. It's always been that way.

The most annoying thing to me is when babies are born, only the parent that gave birth has decent relationship with it right off the bat. It's easier to fix this when the newborns become toddlers, but it just doesn't make sense to me because I feel like both parents should have a good relationship with the child.

I also miss how in TS2, you could chat on the phone with someone and build a steady relationship with them fairly quickly, while in TS3 it's more difficult. I guess it's the whole, getting the sims out into the open neighborhood thing. It's easier to make friends with other sims in person. I generally keep my sims locked up at home skilling/cleaning/whatever, though, so for me having my sims build relationships outside of the family is sometimes frustrating and tedious.

I agree with the relationships thing.. It was far easier to manipulate sims in S2 than it is now.

And yes, I had that issue too, what I tended to do to combat that, especially since there were a number of preferred methods for playing S3 that I had, was to plant another school down to alleviate the massive crunch the game would do if it had say beyond 10 kids to manage per school. Because my first try at this sort of thing was in riverview and eventually ended up with close to at least 30 kids [and more] trying to get into the school, and the game choked on it, the kids would stand around most of if not the entire day waiting to get inside the school and causing alot of lag at that time as well. I've done several experiments on this and I feel that to prevent lag later, you need to plop an additional school down earlier in the game, that way, the game can better sort the kids between the two schools and things run smoother..

Another thing I did to cut down lag, was I would remove lots from the town, cut down on the number of people in the city. This also meant I would cull some of the bigger houses and lots or the families that lived in those lots. I believe the culling helped, granted, I was hard pressed to notice with one of my games where the sim had close to at least 50 kids scattered around town... But yes, I feel the pain on the lag issue..

I love a lot of the concepts and features in TS3, like genetic supernatural states and horses. However, no matter how powerful my computer is, I can't seem to escape the lag. That's what I find most challenging: playing long-term and getting past it.

Yeah, I'm a hard-core Sims 3 player, but I'm always tweaking my gave for performance. I try to limit high-poly CC, which helps. I tell Nraas Story Progression to run more slowly, which also helps. It's an ongoing thing. I don't think I'm terribly laggy, especially compared to how laggy I've been in the past. But I'm doing some testing using the itty-bitty two-long Builder's Island world, and it's SOO zippy. I wish I could do that with a real game.